276

Incertarum fabularum fragmenta (fr. 55)

Ath. 5.222b
κατά γάρ τον κωμωδιοποιόν Άναξανδρίδην·-
Άναξανδρείδην Α ό κωμ(ικός) Άναξανδρίδ(ης) post poetae verba CE
According to the comic poet Anaxandrides:-
Metre lambic trimeter.
<x— χ—>-

5--
Discussion Grotius 1626. 644-5, 979; Person 1812. 76; Meineke 1884 III.196;
1847. 590; Bothe 1855. 432; Bamberger 1856. 71; Kock 1884 11.159; Herwerden
1893. 158 (cf. 175); Blaydes 1896. 125, 333; Pickard-Cambridge 1900. 58;
Herwerden 1903. 100; Edmonds 1959 11.74—5; Webster 1970. 51; Kassel-Ausin
1991 11.270—1; Sanchis Llopis et al. 2007. 270
Citation context Athenaeus quotes the fragment as a closing tag at the very
end of Book 5 (222b), as the dinner party breaks up and the guests depart; he
presumably intends it to be taken as epitomizing his thinking in composing
the work (cf. the similar use of the fragment at Cobet 1858. 1).
Interpretation Kassel-Austin, following Webster 1970. 51, reasonably sug-
gest that these lines are spoken by a cook;126 for cooks as inventors, cf. on fr.
31.1. Webster (offering a translation of 3-6) also rightly observes the resem-
blance between this fragment and E. Med. 294-305, although he overstates
the relationship in claiming that this passage is based on Euripides;127 for
Anaxandrides’ use of Euripides, see the Introduction to Helene. If a model is
to be sought, note the prevalence of the theme of invention in satyric drama;
cf. Seaford 1984. 36-7. The point of this fragment is an inversion of that in
Euripides, i. e. here one encounters resentment for keeping one’s ideas to
oneself, whereas in Medea the resentment arises from flaunting one’s superior

126 Less likely is Webster’s alternative suggestion that an ‘intriguing slave’ is speaking.
127 The passage from Medea is parodied at Ar. Th. 1130-2 (cf. Austin-Olson 2004 ad
loc. for other Aristophanic parodies of Medea)·, S. fr. 763 is also similar, which led
Sande Bakhuyzen 1877.135 to attribute (probably wrongly) the fragment to a comic
poet such as Sophilus.